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Syrian rebels are turning to the world wide web for combat training. This is the latest role being credited to social media, which has already won a standing ovation worldwide for the role it has played in spreading news and mobilizing citizens throughout this Arab Spring.

A YouTube channel under the name FSAHelp (Free Syrian Army Help) has posted over 80 videos aimed at helping the Syrian opposition to learn different skills – from hand-to-hand combat to making flame-throwers to the basics of assault rifles to creeping up on an enemy from a hidden position.

I guess it was an inevitable. A “sign of the times” we live in. The Free Syria Army (FSA) has turned to YouTube and Facebook to train it;s recruits. The rebels are outgunned, out-manned and, for the most part, aren’t professional soldiers. So they’ve found a new, innovative way to turn citizens into warriors by turning to social media for tutorials in how to use their weapons.

Here's one of the videos which shows viewers how to assemble and clean a Belgian type of rifle:

Comments posted on the videos are mainly in support for the FSA, and their fight against the dictatorship in Syria, like this commenter [ar]:

Is it legal for a US citizen to provide assistance to a foreign army or rebel group? I am unsure. Free speech, in practice, frequently ends at the border. It is perfectly legal to produce a firearm instructional video and upload it to Youtube for consumption inside the USA, but professional training video producers such as Magpul claim that their training videos are regulated by ITAR and require State Department permission to export outside the USA

Evakatrina compared such videos to the case of Bradley Manning, who is a US Army soldier, and he was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

@evakatrina: So #Manning “aided the enemy” but they can't prove he did harm. But guerrilla training for general public is ok?

And what about YouTube Safety Conduct?

In their “Harmful and Dangerous Conduct“, YouTube has stated under the United States section there (Same message is put in the Canadian section of the page too):

[W]e draw the line at content that’s intended to incite violence, encourages or shows dangerous or illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death. This means not posting videos on things like instructional bomb making, instructional drug use, sniper attacks, or tips on illegal street racing.

After the Russian TV channel mentioned our page, it has been deleted, and we think the YouTube channel might get deleted anytime, so we urge you all to download the videos just in case.

Finally, the question remains should rules be bent for the sake of supporting the Syrian rebels in their fight against an oppressive regime? Or should rules remain in place, given that there are worries the videos can still be used by any terrorist group anywhere in the world? Also, should German Intelligence reports about the presence of Al-Qaida in Syria increase those worries?

The thumbnail used in this post is a screenshot from a video posted on YouTube by FSAHelp showing viewers how to clean and assemble a rifle.

Ego_ten, there were was nothing but non-violent “loud” protests for MONTHS. As a
result women, children, and men were killed AND raped in the hundreds on
a daily basis. Neither you nor the free world did a single thing. After
which violence necessarily became ‘THE WAY.’ You are a worm. Do you
know why? You ignore it when innocent people suffer, then when they
defend themselves, you grow a conscience and denounce violence.

Lastly, Jihad means Struggle in Arabic. Thus they can struggle
non-violently, and they most definitely did. Their struggle proved that
the world is filled with worms such as yourself, and that change under
truly authoritarian regimes must always end in armed revolt. So please,
at least be consistent and remain quiet just as you did before when
innocent people suffered ‘non-violently.’